“We need to go to the police.” Elaine said.
“Let me get my hands on that little shit first!” Brian fumed.
Elaine stood beside her husband, and gently put her hand on his arm.
“We will get that little bastard.” Elaine spoke gently, but the venom was in her voice. “But we have to clear this mess up first.”
Kylie stepped into the room.
“I’m so sorry, Daddy.” She sobbed.
Brian’s demeanour softened instantly, he threw his arms around his daughter and his own tears started to flow.
“You have nothing to be sorry about, my darling girl.”
He kissed his daughter on her head.
“Am I going to be in trouble for lying, Daddy?” Kylie was clearly scared.
“No, my sweet girl. It is Daniel that will be in trouble. A lot of trouble. And I’ll make sure that he never hurts you ever again.”
23
Saturday night in The Bear and Hunter public house had previously been a lively evening, a family run pub for local couples to enjoy a good night out after a stressful week. However, as the Cardiff Bay scene had taken all the trendy punters and romantic couple nights out, the traditional pub had become more a quiet, dated and a rather intimidating venue for the type of men that preferred a spit and sawdust location. An oasis and haven away from their nagging wives and screaming children. A pub full of proper men’s men.
Timothy Cook and Craig Johnson were sat at their usual table, near enough to the bar for getting their drinks, but far enough away that their conversations were not overheard by whatever barmaid was on duty that night. The noise of their discussions generally drowned out by the large screen TV that was playing Sky Sports on a continuous loop. On this evening, it was playing a rugby league game that neither of the men, nor their drinking companions were interested in.
Their attentions were firmly on a message that the PH Cardiff and South Wales page had received.
“Roy the sparky has just messaged.” Craig began. “You know Roy?”
The men nodded
“He’s doing some work in the police station, and he’s just overheard they’ve dropped the charges against the paedo teacher.”
“What the fuck?” one of the drinking companions said.
“Apparently the kid made it up. He reckons they are spitting feathers in the station.” Craig continued.
“Bullshit.” Tim said. “My Dan has said, straight up, that the bloke is a right sick fucker.”
“That’s what Roy has said.” Craig said. “Charges dropped.”
“We aren’t going to let that piece of shit get away with this are we?” another man said.
“Yeah, no smoke without a fire.” The first drinking companion said.
“Well fuck this.” Craig said “The police won’t act, we will.”
“Hold on now boys.” Tim decided to calm the situation down. “Let’s find out what happened.”
“Well Derek will be well up for sorting out another nonce, I’m sure.” The second man said “Wait ‘till he hears about this.”
“This isn’t the same.” Tim said. “He done the last one over inside. This bloke may be a sick fucker, but we can’t just go around killing people. Give the cops some time to sort it out.”
With that his phone rung. He looked at the display.
“It’s my kid, gimme two secs and don’t plan anything stupid.”
Tim got up, answering as he was walking. Dan was babbling rapidly down the phone, Tim fixated on two words. Being arrested.
“Don’t say a fucking word without a lawyer, where are you, I’m on my way.”
He listened to his son’s response, and hung up. Leaving without returning inside the pub and to his friends.
24
Lisa Whitney opened the front door to her flat. Normally she would call out, but it was late. She didn’t want to wake up Hannah if she had already gone to bed.
She took off her coat, and placed it on the coat hook next to her front door, she walked into the living room and was greeted by a big smile from her girlfriend, who was lying with her feet up on the sofa, her kindle in hand.
“Give me two minutes to finish this chapter. Then I’m all yours.” She said.
Lisa smiled back and nodded. She had learned early on in their relationship that if Hannah had her head buried in her kindle, it was no point trying to speak. Lisa walked through to the kitchen. She stood in front of the cupboards. Should she open the one with the mugs and make herself a hot chocolate or should she open the one with the wine glasses and pour herself a glass of wine.
“Fuck it.” She thought, as she opened the glasses cupboard. She took out a wine glass, then went to the fridge, hoping that there would be a bottle of white wine in there. After the day she had had, she needed that first sip of the cold wet relaxation tool. She opened the fridge, and there in the door was an open bottle of Chenin Blanc. She took it out, relieved, and poured her glass to the brim.
She turned to see Hannah standing in the doorway.
“That bad, hey.” Hannah joked.
“You wouldn’t believe it.” Lisa replied.
Hannah walked over to her, put her arms around Lisa’s neck, then kissed her softly.
“You are home now my love.” She soothed. “Come and tell me all about it, and I’ll rub your feet whilst you tell me.
Lisa smiled. The best decision she had ever made was asking Hannah to move in with her. Hannah always seemed to know the right thing to say or do. Lisa didn’t know if it was down to her medical training in psychiatry or whether it was just the way Hannah was. Could Hannah have been a checkout operator in Tesco and still have the same skills? Lisa smiled as she imagined this.
“What did I do to deserve you.” Lisa said, as Hannah grabbed Lisa’s free hand, the one without the wine glass, and guided her into the living room.
“Well, you lucked out the day you met me, that’s for sure.” Hannah laughed. “Now put that glass of wine down, take your shoes and socks off and feet up. I’ll get some massage lotion.”
Hannah winked, as she walked out of the living room and across the hallway to the bathroom.
Lisa did as she was told, she took a large gulp of wine, putting the glass on a side table then she took off her shoes and socks and put her feet up.
Hannah sat on the other side of the sofa, she placed Lisa’s feet in her lap, rolling up her trousers legs to her knees. She grabbed the massage oil, placing some in her hand before snapping down the lid with one hand, and rubbing her hands together before she started on Lisa’s feet.
“Now, tell me all about it.” Hannah said.
...
“So, the teacher is innocent, and the girl was actually raped by her eighteen-year-old boyfriend who put her up to it?” Hannah summarised, after Lisa had outlined her long and hard day, which had accumulated in her arriving home, very late.
“And since you’ve left this morning, you have spoken to the girl, told the teacher he’s off the hook, and arrested the boyfriend. But what about the porn on the teacher’s computer?”
“Legit stuff.” Lisa replied, “Some of it is pretty nasty, but nothing illegal. You’d swear it was though when Donna let slip to the wife some of his tastes.”
Hannah laughed.
“Typical Donna.” She said.
“She’s improving.” Lisa said with a smile. “I reckon I’ll make a detective out of her. To be honest, I think she did it for the entertainment value.”
“That’s quite a Saturday in work.” Hannah laughed.
“Tell me about it.” Lisa said, she grabbed her wine glass and took the last remaining sips.
“Want a top up?” Hannah asked, seeing the empty glass.
Lisa shook her head. “Best not, tomorrow is going to be another long day I think.”
Hannah nodded, disappointment in her face, which she failed to hide.
Lisa picked up on this immediately.
“Oh Han, I’m sorry.” She said. “I
know we said we’d do something fun tomorrow.”
“I knew the score when I fell in love with you. You coppers are all married to the job!” Hannah replied. “And you don’t have to go back to work just yet.”
She winked a saucy wink, moved Lisa’s legs off her lap and glided herself up the sofa, climbing on top of Lisa.
“Now where is that massage oil.” She whispered, before she kissed Lisa, the anticipation of passion in her eyes.
Lisa came up for air. “I am liking how you think.”
25
The ring of the mobile woke Lisa with a start.
She rolled over and picked it up from the bedside cabinet.
Nothing good ever came of being woken up before the alarm.
Lisa had set her alarm for 7am, her alarm hadn’t gone off yet. As she grabbed her phone, seeing that the caller ID was work, she could also see the time on the top of the screen. 6.34am. A call at that time, on a Sunday morning, from work, had to be bad news.
Had something happened to Daniel Cook? Had he tried something overnight in the cell. She had been particularly hard on him. Rape, sex with a minor, forcing his underage girlfriend to lie to the police. She had laid each of these offences down to him. Coercion, abuse, threatening more abuse against a younger minor. She’d called him a paedophile and asked if he got off on it. She had told him they would throw the book at him. And they would, he deserved it. However, he had seemed scared and vulnerable in the interview room. Ultimately, he was only just an adult. She had to keep reminding herself, that outside of this was his victim, who was only fourteen, scared, and even more vulnerable. When all was said and done, Daniel Cook was a vicious rapist.
She answered the call, choking on her words, with her mouth dry as she had been forced from her slumber.
“Detective Sergeant Whitney.” She forced, her voice sounding croaky.
“Boss, sorry to wake you.” The voice on the other line said. “There’s been a brutal attack in the woods. It’s that teacher you released yesterday. He’s been rushed to UHW, I thought you’d want to know.”
Lisa sat bolt upright, now fully awake.
“Give me half hour, I’ll be there.”
Hannah stirred at the other side of the bed.
“Lisa? Is everything OK?”
“Jason Locke has been attacked and taken to hospital. I’ve got to go.”
26
Penny Locke pulled her Ford Fiesta onto the driveway outside their house. She was exhausted after a stressful nightshift. Whilst she loved her job as a paediatric nurse, there were times when it really broke her. She had just come off a shift which was just that. The night before they had lost a patient, a five-year-old little girl. The youngster had just had a heart operation to repair a defect, and she had been doing really well post-surgery, but from nowhere she went into a rapid decline. Her heart had stopped and despite the best efforts of the team around her, they had failed to restart the little girl’s heart.
It was cruel, beyond cruel. She felt the tears begin to well-up in her eyes again when she saw Jen from next door walking towards her, she was holding Oscar by the lead.
The confusion must have been evident in Penny’s face, as she opened the car door. Her excited dog pulling on the lead to get to Penny.
She leant down and ruffled his fur, he jumped up giving her an enthusiastic lick. She then noticed the red blood stain on his back.
“Oh Oscar, are you hurt?” she called out in distress.
“Let’s get you inside.” Jen said.
“What’s happened?” Penny yelled.
Jen took the keys from her, and opened the front door. Pausing as she looked at the boarded-up window that was yet to be repaired.
She didn’t know how to begin to tell Penny what she needed to say.
“I think you’d better sit down.” Jen started.
“Please, what’s happened, where is Jason? Why have you got Oscar? Why is he covered in blood?”
Jen took a deep breath.
“Penny, there has been an incident. Jason has been taken to hospital.”
“What do you mean?” Penny started.
“He’s been attacked.” She replied. “I’ll take you to the hospital now but he’s in a bad way.”
Jen reached down and stroked Oscar.
“We can leave Oscar with Yolande for now, do you want to get changed? I’ll meet you outside in a minute or two?”
“I need to know what’s happened.” Penny cried.
“I’ll tell you in the car.” Jen said. “Please Penny, get changed and I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Penny nodded.
“I’ll take Oscar next door.” Jen continued. “And I’ll meet you outside mine, ok?”
Penny ran up the stairs, Oscar whined as she left the room.
“It’s OK, Oscar.” Jen said. “Let’s get you some chicken with Yolande, hey?”
She looked at the dog, Jen’s voice must have soothed him, as he started wagging his tail and happily followed her back to Jen’s house, to stay with Troy’s mother who has arrived a few days before.
“She’s home.” Jen said to Yolande. “I’m taking Penny to the hospital. I’ll ring you when I get there. You’ll look after Oscar for a while won’t you.”
“Of course.” Yolande replied. She took a breath as if she was going to say something else. It would have to wait. Jen had already gone through the front door, closing it behind her. She sat in her car and started the engine.
Penny quickly got in the passenger seat, her nurses uniform changed for a pair of leggings and an oversized t-shirt. Jen thought she would probably need a jacket, but rather than suggest that, she made a start out of the cul-de-sac. There was a hoodie of Troy’s on the back seat, she would lend her that.
She pulled through the roads on the estate, nervously pondering how she was going to tell Penny about the morning events. She readied herself as she pulled onto the main road.
Jen explained to Penny how they had been woken up by barking. How she had looked at the clock and had seen it was just before 6am. It was light outside, but the day still had that breaking dawn look about it. Jen told Penny how she had recognised that it was Oscar’s bark, and that she was surprised he was barking so early. She said that Troy had told her to go back to sleep.
“But he kept barking, Penny, and I thought that was odd as Jason would never allow him to keep barking that early in the morning.” She explained.
Jen continued about how she had looked out of the bedroom window, and realised that Oscar wasn’t in the garden. She could see him jumping up on the back wall, his nose occasional popping into sight from beyond the perimeter of the garden.
“I told Troy, ‘Something doesn’t seem right’ and so he said he would go and check. He went out into the garden, and when he opened our gate, Oscar came running towards him. Troy could see he had his lead on him, but that there was no sign of Jason. Then he saw the blood, and so he knew something was wrong.”
Jen elaborated about how Troy had brought Oscar into the house, and had told her that he was going to walk down the woodland paths. He was sure that Jason had had some form of accident.
“The blood on Oscar!” Jen said. “Troy took his phone with him, said he’d ring when he had news. He rang about ten minutes later, said he’d found Jason. That he was in bad shape and he had called an ambulance. He’s gone with him to the hospital. The police have been called.”
Jen paused for a moment.
“I knew you must be on night shift as your car wasn’t there. I didn’t know what to do Penny, but I knew you’d be home soon.”
Penny spoke, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Is he alive?” she asked.
“He was when Troy rang me.” Jen said. “He’s been stabbed. That’s all I know. I just wanted to get you to the hospital. I didn’t want to phone you and tell you that when you were driving home.”
“Thank you.” Penny whispered.
It was clear to Jen that Pe
nny was in shock. She reached out her hand from the steering wheel and squeezed Penny’s hand.
“We just have to pray he will be OK.” Jen said “But at least Troy found him quickly. You can thank Oscar for that.”
Penny smiled. “He’s a special dog.”
27
Lisa had her badge out as she ran into the accident and emergency department of the hospital.
As she approached the reception desk, pushing past a woman with her hand wrapped in a blood stained t-shirt, she noticed Troy and Jen sat in the waiting area. Then she saw the woman hurtling towards her.
“This is your fault!” the woman yelled. “If you hadn’t falsely accused my husband, this would never have happened.”
Jen rushed to Penny, placing an arm on her shoulder, stopping her just as she was about to throw a punch, Lisa started to speak.
“Mrs Locke, we don’t know what has happened yet. Can you please give me a minute to speak to the medical team.”
“I’ll tell you what’s happened!” Penny yelled, oblivious to the fact that all the eyes in the waiting room were now firmly fixed on her. “You arrested my husband for a crime he didn’t commit, and now he’s been stabbed and is fighting for his life!”
“Penny, let’s sit down and get a cup of tea.” Jen started.
“I don’t want a fucking cup of tea.” Penny screamed. “I want this bitch to know that if my husband dies, it’s her fault.”
A woman in a matron’s uniform came out of the doors. She looked at Penny, it was clear she knew her from them both working in the same hospital.
“Penny, sweetheart.” She whispered, putting her arm around the frantic woman. “Let me take you into the office away from here. We will look after you.”
She began guiding Penny with her, towards the clinical area.
“And I will get someone to come and speak to you!” she hissed over her shoulder at Lisa.
Mob Justice (Sinister Minds Quick Reads Book 3) Page 5
